Super-Orthogonal Block Codes with Multichannel Equalisation and OFDM in Frequency Selective Fading

Super-orthogonal block codes in space-time domain (i.e., Super-orthogonal space-time trellis codes (SOSTTCs)) were initially designed for frequency nonselective (FNS) channels but in frequency selective (FS) channels these super-orthogonal block codes suffer performance degradation due to signal interference. To combat the effects of signal interference caused by the frequency selectivity of the fading channel, the authors employ two methods in this paper, namely, multichannel equalization (ME) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In spite of the increase complexity of the SOSTTC-ME optimum receiver design scheme, the SOSTTC-ME scheme maintains the same diversity advantage as compared to the SOSTTC scheme in FNS channel. In OFDM environments, the authors consider two forms of the super-orthogonal block codes, namely, super-orthogonal space-time trellis-coded OFDM and super-orthogonal space-frequency trellis-coded OFDM. The simulation results reveal that super-orthogonal space-frequency trellis-coded OFDM outperforms super-orthogonal space-time trellis-coded OFDM under various channel delay spreads.